More big ideas to wrap your brain around
Two new blog posts and a Twitter chat to add to the growing conversation on big ideas for associations.
Jeff Hurt, on his Midcourse Corrections blog, asks, "What if associations provided brain-friendly annual conferences?" I enjoy reading about brain science, and Jeff has some great ideas here that, while they run counter to common practice, are grounded in the science of how our minds actually work. My favorite line: "We do know that the [brain's] process is similar to a blender running without a lid. The information enters the blender, is sliced into pieces and splattered all over the insides of our mind." That's a fun image.
Meanwhile, on her Mizz Information blog, Maggie McGary asks, "What if your big idea meant you were out of a job?" She raises a fair point that underlies any examination of innovation or change: "I doubt many of us are that altruistic that we'd be willing to forsake our paychecks for the sake of innovation."
Also yesterday, the topic of the weekly association chat on Twitter was "big ideas," and the crowd of association pros that joined in discussed some tough questions about both inspiring innovation and implementing it. You can find all the tweets from the chat by searching for the Twitter hashtag #assnchat (an abbreviation that raises some eyebrows for sure, but there aren't really any other good ways to abbreviate the word association, are there?). The Twitter search link above shows everything in reverse order; theoretically, you can get a normal-time transcript on the website What The Hashtag?, but it wasn't working correctly when I tried this morning, unfortunately.
FYI: The weekly Twitter association chat is at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesdays; follow the #assnchat hashtag or chat moderator (and founder, I think) Jeff De Cagna at @pinnovation to get info on upcoming chats.
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Comments
Cross-posted at Jeff Hurt's blog re brain-friendly annual conferences. http://jeffhurtblog.com/2009/12/16/four-principles-for-planning-brain-friendly-annual-meetings/
(I contend at most meetings/conferences.)
My continuing 'soap box': facilities need to support and promote different environments! When we are forced, because of the "rooms to [meeting] space" ratio, to use only a certain amount of space, including so-called public space, we are forced to work w/in the confines of what we are "allowed" to have or will pay to use.
Having done some sessions that were directed at suppliers (CSMs and Sales/Marketing) even in the conference center industry (that is supposed to be/marketed as more creative), I've found incredible resistance -- to learning about what brains (and tushies) need for meetings to be worthwhile. Just as Dec. is the month on which bonuses are based for sales/marketing, so is the standard thinking about what a meeting "looks" (feels, is) like.
@Deirdre - at ASAE '09, I was so unhappy with room sets and inability to interact, I tweeted my location a few times and was joined by, at one point, up to 10 people (some of whom came out of standard sessions), who wanted to talk. And we did and it was engaging and wonderful.
(Wouldn't it be interesting to have a conference where you paid to attend in a different way? You wanted to be around and able to interact w/ those who also attended and you only wanted to go to a bit of a few sessions.)
Posted by: Joan Eisenstodt | December 16, 2009 2:18 PM
Joan, This reminds me of feedback from the attendees at a conference held by an education association where I was conducting focus groups a couple weeks ago--"The irony strikes me that I spent 90 minutes learning about innovative classroom design sitting on inflexible chairs in a classroom format." I know it's not just the few of us in the industry who stand on the soap box--attendees notice it and pipe up when asked; lots of others no longer attend because the conventional convention education settings just don't cut it. The soft fleshy object at the podium is great but there's only so much they can influence in the individual audience members' learning experience... which is shaped almost as much by where and how and what they're sitting on...
Posted by: Kevin Whorton | December 18, 2009 8:33 AM